"Yesterday evening I stupidly took an illegal minicab to get me home. It cost me more than a licensed taxi, and I was lucky that it did not cost me much more in terms of my personal safety. Londoners should always heed the official advice to only ever take a licensed taxi cab or pre booked licensed minicab to get home. They should learn from my mistake that unbooked minicabs are illegal and expensive and place personal safety at serious risk. I want to make it clear that this journey was a personal one that was not chargeable to the GLA and that I'm very sorry to have done it."

I love black cabs, and always use them if I can. But I do grow tired of cabbies' complaints about minicabs touting for trade at night when there are naff all black cabs available in town, when black cab operators refuse to take cash bookings by phone at night, and when by the time you find that elusive cab with a yellow light, the cabbie will pull a face and refuse to take you to your destination because it's not on his route home.

I can completely understand why a cabbie would not want to work on a Friday / Saturday night, and I can also completely understand if a cabbie is trying to find a fare that is roughly in the direction of their home, but then please don't complain about minicabs that are filling the hole in the market that is created.

I don't think it's about whether you take a black cab or not, as Mark Lee seems to be inferring, but whether the mini-cab is licensed or not.Darren played a big part in the last administration which sorted out the unlicensed cabs and also some aspects of 'the knowledge'. Until recently it covered Park Lane, but not Peckham. (Has it yet been modified).So Darren should have known better.

All fair points Mark, but it's still hard to see this as anything other than a (minor but amusing) blooper. He could and should have used a legal minicab or the cabwise service, and he certainly shouldn't have tweeted about using a dodgy cab. He presumably realises that, which is why he has deleted his tweets.

I've used dodgy cabs myself in the past and had a couple of quite scary experiences. I wouldn't do it again in a hurry.

About Adam Bienkov

Journalist at Politics.co.uk and contributor to MSN News, The Guardian and elsewhere. I also write a London politics blog for Snipe Magazine.
Do you know something that I don't? Feel free to email stories, tip-offs and leaks here and I will do the rest.